The Revisionism That Comes With Success
Photo by Sanjeevan SatheesKumar on Unsplash
Startups need to be scrappy to succeed. They need to push the boundaries of their markets, take advantage of all avenues and market rules to not only get their product to market but to compete with the bigger, more established players.
While it’s a nice idea to think that if they simply develop a great product, customers will flock to them, the fact of the matter is that a head to head battle against the market leader doesn’t usually end well for anyone but the incumbent. And so the young enterprise needs to look for any type of advantage, from marketing and positioning to distribution and access.
(To be clear, I’m talking about legal avenues only, not the breaking of any laws, or fundamentally unethical, misleading behaviors.)
Once these startups succeed, though, and they themselves become one of the ‘established’ players, they often exhibit a change of heart. Suddenly, there’s a need to “level the playing field” or establish a “common set of ground rules” so as to ensure fair and free competition. All put forward, by their logic, in the best interests of the customer.
After all, shouldn’t the product simply speak for itself? That’s how we got here in the first place!
I suppose we shouldn’t be too surprised at this sort of ‘revisionism’, if you will, taking place. Once you become a leader in your space, your natural instinct is to protect yourself - just as your natural instinct as a startup is to do whatever it takes to gain a foothold in the market, some sort of competitive advantage.
That’s par for the course, the natural order of things. You’ll find examples of this everywhere from business (in the technology arena, for example) to sport (there's no lack of this going on at Chelsea Football Club, which seems to have suddenly found religion in this regard).
To be clear, I won’t even begin to suggest that I have an answer for this. It’s an age old problem and smarter folks than I have struggled with how to put this right. I’m simply making the observation.
It’s easy to suggest that everyone ought to play fair and apply the same rules to themselves as they apply (or would like to apply) to others. But it’s also naïve, because it isn’t going to happen. The human instinct to be fair tends to get trumped when your survival (or wealth) is at stake.
There’s likely a role here for regulatory bodies and governments, but, of course, there can be skewed interests in that regard as well. An alternative is Industry and Trade Associations, which can put forward “self-policing” mechanisms, which are, again, ideas fraught with their own perils. They tend to work until they don’t.
At the end of the day, I think the only takeaway is that we be cognizant of this behavior, particularly if we are the startup.
Manage, counter and react. Be focused, be provocative and be proactive. Above all, be aware.
Our survival depends on it.
